NYPD stop-and-frisks are up by 10 percent this year amid a staggering decrease in murders and a jump in weapons seizures, the department said yesterday.

The city’s murder rate has dropped by 21 percent — from 164 to 129 this year — according to police spokesman Paul Browne.

The NYPD has also seen a 31 percent increase in the number of illegal firearms it confiscated, compared to the same three-month period last year, according to Browne.

“New York City is on track to establish a new annual low [in terms of murders], set most recently with 471 murders in 2009,” Browne said.

While mayoral candidates and the New York Civil Liberties Union have called for an overhaul of the controversial stop-and-frisk policy because they claim it targets black and Hispanics, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly maintained that stop-and-frisks save lives.

About 6,000 weapons, including 800 illegal handguns, are taken off the streets annually from individuals deemed suspicious and subjected to stops by the police, Browne said.